


I Like Your Shoelaces

by My_ChemicalKismesis



Category: Homestuck
Genre: (Still a Mutant), (well technically D but it applies to all universes), Alternate Universe - No Sburb/Sgrub Sessions, Bro is a fucking asshole, Child Abuse, Dave has ADHD, F/F, Feelings Jams, God tiers, It won't remain pale, M/M, Memes, Mentions of the Hemospectrum, Multi, Nightmares, Not Beta Read, Pale Romance | Moirallegiance, Panic Attack, Quadrant Confusion, SBurb Memories, Seadweller Karkat Vantas, Shoosh-Papping, Soulmate AU, Trans Dave Strider, Trolls on Earth, pesterlogs
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-27
Updated: 2019-03-04
Packaged: 2019-07-18 08:15:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 24
Words: 17,239
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16114445
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/My_ChemicalKismesis/pseuds/My_ChemicalKismesis
Summary: Karkat is starting his senior year of highschool and meets one of his soulmates, Dave Strider.





	1. =>Karkat: Start Your Senior Year of Highschool

You glared at your fucking horrible soulmark in utter loathing. In the worst red text that was the same color as your shittymutant blood, it read:  
"I like your shoelaces." When you were younger, you'd assumed it meant you wore nice shoes the day you'd met but now you know whoever your soulmate is, they sure love memes. You really aren’t sure about your second soulmate though. You have two soulmates, which is strange but not unheard of. The second one reads,  
“Where’s the person you’re introducing me to?” the blue is the same color as John’s text. You pack up your shit into a bag and head out the door for the first day of your senior year of highschool. You get on the bus and it begins to drive you to the hell known as highschool. You still don’t have a way to get to school besides this shitty bus.  
At lunch time, you leave campus to go to a McDonald's rather than eat with your friends. You order food and sit down at a booth. A guy you recognize from school, the one with the shades and blond hair sits next to you as if he owns the goddamn place.  
"I like your shoelaces." You know the expected response is thanks, I stole them from the president but you hate the president so you choose a better response.  
"Fuck the president." Then you realize this guy could be your soulmate. His face shows a glimmer of shock before he pulls himself together.  
"Names Dave Strider."  
"I'm Karkat, Karkat Vantas."  
“Do you have Pesterchum?”  
“Yeah.”  
“Nice, I’m turntechGodhead.”  
“I’m carcinoGeneticist.” You wouldn’t normally give your handle to any fucking weirdo but hey, this guy could be your soulmate. The cashier calls out that your order is done and you grab it, Dave following shortly after. You go back to the booth and Dave sits down too. You guess you should get to know him. “So, do you like movies?” Maybe he likes romance too. If you’re really fucking lucky he might even be an actor too.  
“Yeah, I actually want to be a director.”  
“Oh, I want to act.”  
“Cool. Maybe one day I’ll even direct a movie you’re in and you’ll remember me as the coolest guy you’ve ever met who you’ve been trying to impress since high school. Hell, maybe you’ll even remember me as a friend. You seem potentially cool enough.” If he knows you’re soulmates, then he’s not letting on to it. He eats most of his food in one bite and then grabs his phone. “I’ll add you on Pesterchum.” You grab your phone as well, you want need to tell John you found your soulmate.  
carcinoGeneticist [CG]  started pestering ectoBiologist [EB]  
CG: JOHN, HOLY SHIT.  
CG: I FOUND MY SOULMATE.  
EB: karkat thats great  
CG: IT SHOULD BE BUT HE SEEMS KINDA ASSHOLEISH.  
CG: HE ACTS LIKE HE’S COOLER THAN ME.  
CG: HE WANTS TO BE A DIRECTOR AND I WANT TO BE AN ACTOR SO THAT’S AN INTERESTING COINCIDENCE.  
The guy taps your shoulder.  
“Lunch is ending soon, you should hurry and eat.” You heed his advice and eat some more of your food.  
CG: SHIT, I GOTTA GO.  
carcinoGeneticist [CG]  has ceased pestering  ectoBiologist [EB]  
You eat a bit more of your food and then toss it and say bye to Dave before going back to the school.  
You’re pacing the edge of the stage in theater while waiting for class to start and thinking about Dave. You’re sure he’s one of your soulmates. He is definitely not the worst possible soulmate. The theater door swings open and Dave enters. You get distracted from your pacing upon seeing him and begin moving towards the edge of the stage. By the time dave is close to you you are dangerously near the edge of the stage. You slip and fall off the stage and Dave runs over to you.  
“Oh shit, man are you okay?” He helps you up and okay, yeah you are super gay for him. Your pretty sure your head hurts a bit and you probably are going to have a bruise or two from landing on a concrete floor, but aside from that you seem to be fine. Definitely not as bad as him or your other soulmate. You can feel every time one of them gets hurt, and one of them gets cuts on a near daily basis. It really hurts you sometimes, but it has to be worse for them. You wonder if Dave is the one who goes through the near constant pain. You feel his hand on your face and are extremely confused. You are probably blushing.  
“You’re bleeding.” Shit. Your blood is visible? Dammit now he’s never going to want your mutant ass. At least you can’t get culled anymore. “I have some first aid supplies in my bag, I’ll go grab them.”  
You are pretty sure you’re bleeding in a few places on your face, and one of the cuts on your arm that either he or your other soulmate got reopened. You’re pretty sure you are having a panic attack now.


	2. =>Dave: Have an Accidental Feelings Jam on the Bathroom Floor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oh boy, quadrant confusion time!

That loud shouty guy is definitely your soulmate, and you’re pretty sure he’s having a panic attack right now. He’s bleeding a bit and you are pretty sure that’s not a normal color for trolls so you assume that’s why he’s having a panic attack. You walk back over to him and hand him the bandages.   
“Dude, I can tell you’re having a panic attack. Can you get this blood cleaned up on your own or are you freaking out too much?” He shakes his head weakly, and you can tell that hurt a bit because he definitely hurt his head a bit. You awkwardly lead him out of the theater, trying to make sure nobody sees his blood. You two walk into the bathroom and you clean the cutd on his face before bandaging them. He very carefully rolls up his sleeve to see a larger cut, exactly where you had gotten hurt strifing bro.   
“This cut got reopened, it’s from my soulmate.” You do vaguely remember being told that if a person got hurt, their soulmate would feel it like you did but if it’s bad enough they can actually have a cut from it. So, this is your fault.   
“I’m so sorry.” You clean up the cut and bandage it too.   
“I guess you probably don’t want to be friends with a mutant fuck up like me,” he says through tears and you feel tears spring to your eyes too. You shoosh him.   
“I probably shouldn’t show you this but,” you slowly slide your glasses off so that he can see your eyes, the same red as his blood and hold his face up to look at you. “We’re fucked up in the same color.” That seems to help him calm down a bit. He’s looking up at you with a fucking adorable expression, and okay yeah you are probably not straight. You pull him into a hug and he sobs into your chest. He is too fucking cute and this is probably one of the worst times to have a sexuality crisis, yet here you are. You seperate from the hug and grin at him. “There’s no way some dumb shit like your blood color would ever prevent me from wanting to be friends with a guy as cool as you.” You pat him on the face and pack up the first aid supplies before putting your shades on and getting ready to leave the bathroom. You offer a hand to help him up. You two walk back to the theater and class still hasn’t started. “I should introduce you to my friends.” You two walk over to where Rose and her girlfriends are standing. “Hey.” Rose gives you a look that definitely implies that she assumed something less than platonic may have happened.   
“So, David are you going to introduce me to your friend?” Rose asks.   
“Oh yeah this is Karkat.” A flash of recognition shows on Kanaya’s face.  
“Karkat, I didn’t know you went here.”   
“It’s my first year living in the area. How have things been since we last saw each other?”   
“Mostly good, but Rosa went missing.”   
“Oh, Signless disappeared too.” You don’t know who they’re talking about, but you’re guessing that those are family members. “What’s the human word for what Rosa is?”   
“For me, a mother and for you I believe it’s grandmother.” So then she’s his aunt?   
A conversation goes on for a little longer but the teacher then shows up and starts the class.   
After school, you decide to tell John about the events of the day.  
turntechGodhead [TG]  started pestering  ectoBiologist [EB]  
TG: hey john  
TG: hows your day  
TG: i think i might be gay  
TG: oh shit that rhymed  
TG: but i met this guy who might be my soulmate and hes also really cute  
TG: and hot  
TG: who gave him the right to be that damn hot  
TG: hes so hot hes a fire hazard   
EB: dave  
EB: thats really gay  
TG: i should introduce you to him  
turntechGodhead [TG]  started pestering  carcinoGeneticist [CG]  
TG: hey man  
TG: i have a pal i want to introduce you to  
CG: OKAY. I HAVE A FRIEND I CAN INTRODUCE YOU TO TOO.   
turntechGodhead [TG] opened memo coolest_bros  
ectoBiologist [EB] responded to memo  
carcinoGeneticist [CG] responded to memo  
EB: wheres the person youre introducing me to  
CG: WHERE’S THE PERSON YOU’RE INTRODUCING ME TO  
TG: wheres the person youre introducing me to  
TG: oh shit  
EB: wait karkat and dave you guys know each other?   
CG: FOR THE LOVE OF FUCK.   
You heard a familiar sound from outside, Bro was home and he had just left a note that probably instructed you to go to the roof because he wants to kick your ass.   
TG: shit I gotta go  
turntechGodhead ceased responding to memo


	3. =>Karkat: Contemplate Dave's Pale Behavior

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Karkat contemplates the feelings jam he and Dave had and then Dave calls, in need of immediate medical attention.

You are sitting with Kanaya and Rose, having tea at Kanaya’s hive. You aren't paying attention at all because you're too distracted by the fact that Dave shooshpapped you. Are you moirails now? You do have pale feelings for him but you also have flushed feelings for him. Suddenly you’re pulled out of your thoughts by a sharp pain. It feels like you just got punched in the face and with the pain comes a heavy and painful despair. Shit, is Dave in danger? You don’t know but then that question is most certainly affirmed by what feels like a blade being scraped across your arm, only a few inches above your soulmark. When you look at your sleeve, you can see candy red blood already sweeping through your sweater. You feel like you were kicked in the stomach, and you cough and now oh fuck there’s candy red blood on Kanaya’s table.   
“Karkat, is something wrong?” Kanaya asks gently, approaching you.   
“Shit, soulmate,” you manage to choke out before there’s a sharp, stabbing pain not too far away from where you got kicked.   
“Do you know who your soulmate is?” Rose asks you. You nod. “Who?”   
“Dave.” Your phone rings with a call from Dave, and you answer.   
“Hey, Karkat can I stay at your place?”  
“Sure, but why the fuck do you ask? Is some shit fucked up?”   
“It ain’t safe at my place. What’s your address?”  
“I’ll text it to you, but I’m not home right now but I’ll try to get home.” You hang up and text him the address. “Well speak of the fucking devil. Dave just called, shit is apparently fucked where he lives.” You need to get home now. You grab your shit and thank god that your house is only a few minutes walk from Kanaya, because with all these injuries, you couldn’t walk two more inches than that. All the cuts hurt like hell, but you manage to make it home right as Dave arrives there. He gets out of his car, and you can see just how fucked he is. You walk over to where he is and he nearly collapses onto you. You walk over to the door while supporting him. You unlock the door and he seperates from you and enters the ablution block.   
“Where’s the first aid kit?” You open the cabinet and hand him the first aid kit. He rolls up the sleeve of his shirt, and bandages right above the soulmark. You try to read what it says and when you realize what it says, your heart stops. In your grey text it reads, “FUCK THE PRESIDENT.” That’s what you told Dave, isn’t it? He has to know, right? He rolls up his shirt a bit to begin to work on the larger injury on his stomach. He bandages it, and only then do you remember you’re still bleeding. You get some bandages and try to clean up your cuts. Dave definitetly takes notice of this.   
“So, you are my soulmate, huh?”   
“Yeah, but I don’t fucking know which quadrant. I think it’s pale though.” Shit, you really want to pap him. “Do you want to be moirails?”   
“Sure. Also you did a really shitty job on those bandages, would you like me to help out with that?” You nod, and he moves over to you and he cleans all your cuts and shit. He finishes up and looks at you.   
“So, what exactly do moirails do?”   
“They keep eachother calm and have feelings jams typically.”   
“A feelings jam?”   
“That’s when two moirails form a pile and talk about whatever shit makes them pissed. Another common thing is shooshpapping. Do you want to feelings fucking ham?”   
“Sure.”   
“Great, I’ll make a pile. I guess shit like pillows and blankets should work.” You go upstairs and he follows and you grab all the blankets and pillows you can find and form them into a pile, and you’re pretty sure some sweaters joined them. You sit in the pile with him.   
“If you don’t mind me asking, what shithead has been beating the fuck out of you for godamn years?”  
He takes a small breath before responding. “My bro. When I came out to him as a trans dude, he decided that being a boy meant ‘training’ me and he taught me to fight, while also saying some fucked up and homophobic shit. The guy was super fucking gay though. I have another brother too, he’s a year older than me, and he left when he turned eighteen. I don’t know where he went but I really miss him. Bro tried to teach him the same homophobic shit, but he didn’t listen. I also have two sisters who I never lived with, Rose who you met earlier and Roxy. Roxy and Dirk are twins, Rose and I are too. Roxy left too.”  
“I have a brother who disappeared when he turned 18 too. The same year when you started getting hurt was when my father went missing too.”  
“Weird. My bro is fucking rich as hell, yet we live in a shitty apartment. He sells porn puppets. He also made movies with them, so my house is full of cameras and I think you can pay to view some of them. Wait I think I had two more siblings, two twins who were older than me. I never met either of them. And that concludes my tragic backstory.”  
“If I ever meet your bro, I’m going to fucking kill him.” You grin at him and start to stand. “It’s getting pretty fucking late, we should probably eat some shit. I could order a pizza if you want that.”  
“Sure man, pizza sounds great.” You get your phone, ignoring the texts from Rose and Kanaya and look at the number for your local pizza place.   
“Do you want a large cheese and one of those chocolate fuckers?”   
“Sure.” You call the number on the site and order your food from the place.   
“While we wait for food I could give a tour of the house.”   
“Cool.” You take his hand and you two stand up and you give a grand sweeping motion at the surrounding respiteblock. You have walls with posters of both Earth and Alternian romance films and an old Trollian poster on the walls. The rest of the room is kept very neat, with many large shelves. You have both a Recuperacoon and a sleeping platform in the block.   
“This shithole is my respiteblock,” you inform your moirail despite not thinking that it is a shithole and you have worked very hard to keep it neat. You walk out the door with him, still holding hands. The upstairs hallway has a few rooms off of it. There’s your respiteblock, Kankri’s respiteblock, the Signless long abandoned respiteblock, the ablutionblock and another block that was a hangout-type room that has a couch and a television. It is the one block you do not keep immaculately clean. “Here’s the ablutionblonblock,” you gesture at the door. “These are my father and my brother’s rooms, I avoid those fuckers most of the time. And that room is my miscellaneous shit room.” You walk closer to the stairs and Dave stops in front of a small table that is covered in pictures. There’s some of you and your hatefriends, some old family portraits with all of the Vantases, a few from Signless’ political campaigns and a very old photo of him when he was young with the Dolorosa. You don’t even know how he had it taken.  
“Everyone thinks it was an assassination.”   
“What?”  
“When my dad went missing. He was a large part of Alternia’s politics and a religous leader. He was the reason any trolls are on earth. He fought hard to get any and all trolls who’d otherwise be culled off of Alternia and onto a safe planet. He chose Earth. Now, any cullbait trolls would be sent to Earth instead of being fucking killed. The first ones were sent with any quadmates and the younger ones were adopted by adult trolls, sometimes even their goddamn ancestors. I never knew what quadrant he and the Disciple were in. I never knew his name either. There’s a lot of mystery surronding him and a lot of exaggeration and made up stories too. If I ever want to understand him better it’s gonna be one fucking hell of a mystery to solve. I fucking want to solve it too. I also really want to figure out where Kankri went, I miss them so fucking much but with my luck they’re probably fucking dead.” Dave paps you as a few candy red tears begin to roll out of your eyes.   
“I miss Dirk.”  
“What was Dirk like?” You want to hear about anything and everything Dave thinks, you are really fucking pale for him. Even with how pale you are, you really want to be red with him too. This is just another way you’re fucked up. In addition to your mutation you don’t even like people in one quadrant or in a vacillation way.   
“He was a fucking genius. He built a completely sentient being using a copy of his brain when he was only thirteen. Shit, Hal. I left him in the apartment.”  
“We’ll find a way to get him and all your other shit, I promise.”  
“My bro’ll probably go out of town to sell those shitty puppets or some other shit soon.” He nervously tugs at his sleeve and you realize he’s still wearing a bloody and torn shirt.   
“Shit, Dave you need to change your fucking shirt. I’ll go find a shirt for you to borrow, we can buy some shit tomorrow for you to wear until we get your shit.” You go into your room and find a plain black long sleeved shirt. He’s taller than you and a lot skinnier but this should fit him. You toss it to him and then leave the room so he can change. When he exits your room, you can immediately see the shirt is very tight. He looks like he’s never had a full meal in his life, which he may not have and you’re sure that muscle did not come from a gym but however he was hurt for all those years. It saddens you just looking at him but you have no time to think about that because the doorbell just rang, presumably from the pizza delivery. You and Dave rush downstairs to get it the pizza.   
When you get the pizza you two walk into the living room and sit down on the couch.  
“Do you want to watch a movie?”   
“Sure.” You grab the remote and pick a romcom you’ve seen a billion times.  
The movie is just the same as all the movies you’ve watched with Dave, you can recite it word for word and he gives some insulting commentary. Wait, what the fuck? You’ve never watched a movie with Dave before. Yet you can remember it like it happened. You were on the meteor, four other trolls and one other human were there to. Kanaya, Rose and three others who you can’t remember. Right as you try to remember, Dave sleepily lays his head in his lap. You turn your attention back to the movie, absentmindedly running your fingers through his hair. You trace a claw along the back of his neck but pause when you notice it and you feel his breath catch in his throat.  
“Is the scar that bad?”  
“Shit, no it’s not the scar, I have it too, remember? You actually have a second soulmark.” The same blue text you have, that’s rendered nearly illegible by the scar.   
“Shit, really? What does it say?”  
“Well the fucking scar makes it damn near impossible to read, so let’s thank whatever the fuck higher power that dumped me into this universe that I have the same one. It says Where’s the person you were introducing me to, in the same shade of blue that John uses.”   
“Huh, weird.” He yawns, and you can tell he probably barely ever sleeps. You glance at a clock that tells you that it is midnight.   
“We should probably go the fuck to sleep.”  
“Yeah.” You two go upstairs and you climb into your recuperacoon, telling him he can sleep in your bed since you never use it and you don’t have a guest bedroom.


	4. Dave: => Dream

You're with Karkat and you're kissing. This is probably the greatest thing ever. You never, ever want this to end. Suddenly, then door is thrown open and Bro's storming in. He grabs Karkat by the turtleneck of his sweater and is slicing deep cuts in Karkat's skin, yet you can't feel them at all. Bro tosses a screaming, dying Karkat to the ground and thrusts a sword into your hands and swings at you and you fend him off but it's no use. You're on the ground, screaming and crying out for Karkat. Suddenly, you aren't there anymore and you're in an unfamiliar room and someone is shooshpapping you repeatedly. You glance up and see that it's Karkat and you're probably in his room. Shit. When he sees that you're awake, he stops shooshpapping you.  
"Are you okay? That seemed like a bad dream. You kept calling out for me."  
"I'm fine. Actually, no I'm not. I was dreaming that we were having a feelings jam," that's a lie but you aren't going to tell him the truth, even if you're almost completely honest with him. "Then my Bro showed up," he growls slightly at the mention of your bro, "he grabbed you and started hurting you," shit you're crying now, “then I had to fight him and I fucking lost.” Karkat shooshes you, tears are streaming down your cheeks. He pulls you into a hug, burying your face in his chest.  
"Shush love. You're safe now," Karkat tells you, his tone gentle. You're sure that's completely pale.  
Eventually, he falls asleep and starts purring, which is fucking adorable. Not longer after you go back to sleep as well.  
You wake up and somehow manage to get up without waking Karkat. You go downstairs and find your phone, right as you get a video call from John. You don’t get a chance to see what time it is but you think you saw a lot of missed calls. You answer the call and then realize you don’t have your shades and your hair is probably a huge mess. John answers the call and looks a bit shocked before he speaks.  
“Hi, Dave. Is everything okay? You don’t look so great.”  
“Yeah, everything is great. I just woke up.” You notice in the little spot where it shows your reflection that you have very messy hair, as you often do when you wake up.  
“Oh, what time zone do you live in?”  
“I dunno. I think eastern?”  
“Dave, that means its around two there.”  
“Shit, must have overslept.”  
“That’s not good. But you want to know what is good?”  
“What?”  
“I’m moving closer to my sister. I’m almost there too! In a few hours I’ll be at my new house. My dad is traveling for work almost all the time now, so it might be a bit lonely so I hope I can make some friends in my new town.”  
“Yeah, I hope you make a ton of cool new friends too.” You hear footsteps behind you and freeze before remembering you aren’t with Bro anymore and that that’s just Karkat.  
“Dave fucking wake me up next time.” Karkat sits down next to you on the couch.  
“Mornin’. I’m calling John right now.”  
“Hey Karkat!”  
“What the fuck time is it?”  
“Around two.”  
“Fuck. We missed school.”  
“Ah, shit we did.” You hear something said by who you assume is John’s father.  
“Gotta go guys, bye!” John hangs up before you two can respond. You check your notifications and see that Rose, Kanaya and Jade were all trying to contact you. You open up your texts to respond to them and see a text from someone else, and unrecognized number. You decide to deal with that one last. You first click on the one from Rose.  
TT: David, it is first period. Where are you?  
TT: Dave, I am concerned. You and Karkat are both missing.  
TT: Dave, please respond. I really don’t want this to be like Dirk and Roxy.  
TT: Please fucking respond.  
TG: shit rose i overslept  
TG: no need to freak out that much  
TG: karkat and i are fine  
You click on the texts from Kanaya next.  
GA: Hello Dave Do You Know Where Karkat Is  
GA: I Am Worried For Him  
TG: hey kanaya  
TG: he and i just overslept  
You click on the few messages from Jade.  
GG: hey dave  
GG: is everything okay?  
GG: you and karkat are both missing and im worried  
TG: shits cool as hell  
TG: just overslept  
You finally click on the last set of messages. They say they are from AR, which does not provide a chumhandle. It has red text like your own words.  
AR: Hello Dave.  
TG: who the hell are you?  
AR: Oh, I was unaware my mere existence is unknown to you.  
TG: still dont know who you are  
TG: dude ill block you if you dont say who you are  
AR: I am Hal Strider.  
TG: i had no clue there was another human in the strider family  
AR: That is probably because I am no human.  
TG: what?  
TG: did someone adopt a troll or something?  
AR: No. I am a clone of Dirk’s mind, he coded me at age thirteen, and was building me a body and updating my code until he disappeared. I then had a glitch that prevented me from doing anything but I repaired my code and now I can communicate.  
AR: I have a body but I cannot activate it on my own.  
AR: That is why I am reaching out to you.  
AR: I need you to visit the apartment and activate me.  
TG: ok i guess but what about bro  
AR: He has just left to sell his products.  
AR: He will not be returning for a few days.  
TG: ok dude ill be right over  
You put your phone down.  
“Kat, we gotta go activate a robot at my apartment. My bro just left for a few days so we can grab my shit too.” You go upstairs to get dressed and leave him processing that. You grab the largest items of Karkat’s clothes you can find and pull them on. These fit you better, but you’re glad you’re gonna have your actual clothes soon. You go downstairs and ask Karkat if he’s coming, and he responds that he is and goes to get dressed. You go to make breakfast while he does this.  
Karkat joins you when he’s dressed and you two go into your truck to drive to the apartment. You take the elevator up, and freeze in front of the door. You really fucking want to be anywhere but here but you have to do this. You open the door with the key Bro keeps hidden. A few smuppets tumble into the hall. Karkat goes in ahead of you.  
“So, where the fuck are your clothes, I don’t want to be in this shithole longer than I need to be.” You point to the room you and Dirk shared for a long time. He pushes the door open and you follow, locating the suitcase you had for the few times you had to travel. You fill it with your clothes, and move on to the few other items you have that you can carry. You get your collection of dead things and some records, which is about all you can carry. You’ll hopefully be able to come back for the turntables. You also captchalogue a lot of binders filled with photos, both of whatever was around and some of you as well. There’s also a few of the two girls who lived next door who you now remember playing SBurb. The Megidos taught you Alternian and Japanese, and you still hung out with them when you got your first camera.  
“We need to figure out where Hal is.” You open the closet, and see a box you had always questioned the contents of, it is roughly the size of a person. You open the box, and sure enough there is a robot inside. Hal looks shockingly human. His shades light up, and you remember Dirk using those to talk to his friends. You try taking them to see if Hal has instructions for how to activate him.  
AR: Hello Dave.  
AR: Please flip the switch located on the back of my head. It is concealed in my hair.  
You follow his instructions and see red eyes light up in the robot’s head. Hal stands up and takes shades from you.  
“Thank you. It was getting painfully cramped in there when I finally was able to become aware of my surroundings.” Hal then turns his attention to Karkat. “Hello, I am Hal Strider, who might you be?”  
“I’m Karkat Vantas.”  
“Oh, and how do you know Dave?”  
“Oh, we’re moirails.”  
“I see.” He turns back to you. “I really must be getting to my friend’s home, ah wait a second,” he says, looking at his bicep. On it, you can see writing in Indigo, the same as the color of some trolls blood. “I was unaware robots could have soulmates. I also have a very strong guess as to who this is. A very STRONG guess if you would,” you absolutely have no clue why he shouted the word strong. “After all, it is in the quirk of my new friend. But as I was saying, I must be going.”  
“Well, congrats on the soulmate dude.”  
“Ah, I forgot to inform you I need a ride. Would you be so kind as to drive me?”  
“Sure dude. You’re family, and not like the fucker who owns this shithole apartment. As far as I’m concerned, that fucker ain’t even family. Now c’mon give us the address of your friend so we can drive you there.”  
“There’s no need to give you the address, I can simply function the way a GPS would.”  
You drive Hal to his friend/soulmate’s place, a guy in cracked glasses who smelled of sweat. On the way there, Hal would randomly cut off midsentence and give driving instructions in an extra robotic voice.  
“Something about that guy seemed really fucking familiar,” Karkat tells you on the drive back to his house. You watch him try to think deeper. “I fucking remembered. He was in my SGrub session,” Karkat tells you, and you have to try hard not to swerve off the road as Karkat mentions that accursed game, bringing a flood of memories. You remember being on a meteor, being close to him.


	5. =>Dave: Be reminded of an event from another universe, one where you were on a meteor for a great many days

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dave remembers something from the meteor.

You were watching a movie with Karkat, having just recently started dating. At some point you had gotten bored of the romance plotline, staring at him instead. You really wanted to kiss him, which you hadn’t yet. You decide now would be a great time to atleast flirt a little and practice a line you’ve seen in a shitton of his movies. Fake yawn and put your arm around his shoulders. You try this and he leans closer to you. You really don’t think he possibly could get much closer. He decides your cape would make a good blanket, and wraps himself in it before hugging even closer to you. Now’s the perfect chance. You turn to him, and hold his face in your hands. You lean in, and kiss him on the lips. Your lips stop touching his for only a second and then he kisses you. Suddenly, the door creaks open, and you ignore it, assuming it’s just the meteor. Suddenly you hear a voice clear, and see Rose standing there, holding Kanaya’s hand.   
“Oh, we were unaware this room was occupied,” Kanaya tells you two, who had now pulled away from each other. The two exit the room, awkwardly shuffling out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've written up to around chapter eight and six thousand, six hundred words at the moment. Follow my-chemicalkismesis on Tumblr.


	6. =>Karkat: Safely Drive The Two Of You Home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo, this is like mega short so I'm gonna post two chapters today, probably round like ten minutes apart from eachother. It'll take a bit to post because of formatting though, oof.

Dave’s driving, but he seems to have just completely zoned out, almost in a trancelike state. You have to turn the wheel yourself when you notice there’s a turn coming up.   
After a few minutes, Dave seems to be suddenly jolted back to reality. He mutters a few curse words, your name and another two things under his breath. You check the time as Dave pulls into the driveway and see that it is roughly three, which means school lets out in thirty minutes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well that was an 84 word chapter, I hope y'all like the next one better.   
> Follow me: my-chemicalkismesis.tumblr.com. I really hope you've enjoyed this story thus far. I will warn you all to pay attention to the tags on this story though, as they will change.   
> (A hint for the next chapter is a certain other friend who has been a robot will be there!!!! :) And some hinted soulmates for her!!!)


	7. =>Dave: Converse With An Old Friend

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pesterlog formatting is far from my favorite thing.

You were reminded of an old friend when you saw Hal. She too was a robot, though she apparently wasn’t always. You should message her, she did teach you Japanese and Alternian.

turntechGodhead [TG]

started pestering 

apocalypseArisen [AA]

at 15:10 

TG: yo TG: been a while 

AA: hello dave!! :) 

TG: your quirk is different TG: hows life? TG: still a robot? 

AA: nope!!! 

TG: wait really 

AA: yep!! AA: so one day my soulbot was glitching :( and then it exploded and i got vague memories of lying on a red circle and then i woke up in this strange red outfit with bandages on the legs and a hood AA: it also had a gear on the chest AA: but im finally alive again!! 

TG: i remember having a similar outfit 

AA: i also moved AA: damara and mom are missing though :( 

TG: oh TG: same with dirk 

AA: two guys at my school are gone 

AA: a few girls are getting really worried 

AA: wait 

AA: those girls 

AA: they were in the game 

AA: you were too 

TG: so you remember that shitshow TG: good to know 

AA: wait AA: dave AA: are you skipping school? AA: i heard a name for one of the missing guys AA: and she said dave strider!! 

TG: wait TG: you go to my school? TG: cool TG: but no i aint skipping TG: my moirail and i were having a sleepover and we overslept 

AA: i see AA: have you found your soulmate yet? 

TG: yeah TG: its my rail 

AA: i found one of my soulmates!! AA: i havent found the others though AA: i think one is pale AA: you might know the one ive found AA: she goes to our school AA: do you know feferi? 

TG: nope 

AA: well youll probably meet her if we hang out at school AA: gotta go!! AA: bye!! 

TG: bye 

apocalypseArisen [AA] 

ceased pestering

turntechGodhead [TG]

at 15:29

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Aradia ships are AraSolFef, and pale EriAra which my brother requested. There will also be EriSol. Probably. Almost Definitely.


	8. Dave: => Greet The New Neighbor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An old friend moves in next door.

You eat the meal Karkat prepared and have small conversations for a few hours, until there’s a knock at the door. You two hurry to get it. You swing the door open, and are met with a familiar face. One you’d seen in countless Skype calls. It was none another than John Egbert himself.  
“Where’s the person you’re introducing me to?” he says while giggling a little. You have to restrain yourself from touching the words on your neck. You share a look with Karkat. “You know, like we all said hehe,” John says, nervously fiddling with his hands. “Why are you guys looking at eachother like that?”  
“Nothing,” you lie.  
“Absolutely nothing at all.”  
“So, Dave and Karkat, I really wasn’t expecting you two to be my neighbors. Especially both of you.”  
“Yeah, this is probably only temporary obviously,” you say, nervously rubbing the soulmark on your arm you share with Karkat. You don’t want it to be temporary, you never want to be apart from him but this almost definitely will not last forever. You also really don’t want to be apart from John. “So, wanna hang out?”  
“Sure.”  
“Wanna watch a movie? Not fucking Con-Air though, you’ve made me watch that in too many calls,” Karkat suggests.  
“Cool! I just need to text my dad,” John responds, typing on his rather new looking phone. “Okay, he said I can hang out. He’s gonna leave for a trip in like an hour. He’s traveling nearly constantly now. I don’t even know what he does. Actuallly, there’s a concerning amount I don’t know about him. I don’t actually know his name, strangely enough.”  
“Huh, yeah I never knew my father’s name either,” Karkat says.  
“We should start the movie,” John suggests. You three sit together on the couch, and put a movie. Just like that memory from the meteor, you’re too distracted by the two guys next to you, rather than the singular one from the memory though. You keep staring at them. You’re pretty sure that in both this universe and the one with the game, you had a crush on John. At some point, John got tired and fell asleep, lying across your laps. Karkat then puts an arm around you, and you feel a nice sense of happiness, knowing your two soulmates are close. You eventually fall asleep too, leaning on Karkat’s shoulder.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I still have not finished the next chapter, but I have decided on having eventual JaneRoxyCallie, DirkJake and Dirk/Caliborn. I may be writing ahead with Dirk and Caliborn and have a lot planned.


	9. =>

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo, I'm posting this from class.

undyingUmbrage [UU] 

started jeering t

imaeusTestified [TT] 

at 23:11 

UU: HELLO HuMAN 

UU: I HAVE A CHANCE TO CONTACT THE OuTSIDE WORLD FOR ONCE 

UU: I FEEL LIKE I SHOuLD KNOW YOu SO I MESSAGED YOu 

UU: I NEED HELP 

UU: OH SHIT DHSAFDHNSJ 

TT: Hello? 

TT: Is this a joke? 

TT: Only certain people can contact me. Mostly those who have played it. undyingUmbrage is now an idle chum! 

TT: Ah dear. 

TT: This is concerning to say the least. 

timaeusTestified [TT]

ceased pestering 

undyingUmbrage [UU]

at 23:20 You almost feel as if you may know this person but you are unsure. He seems to be in danger but you really are completely unsure of anything about him, especially species.


	10. => Karkat: Wake Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some kinda fluff at the beginning.

You wake up with John and Dave both asleep, using you as a pillow. If it were anyone else, you’d probably be complaining. You glance around the room to try and see what time it had gotten to be. You see that it is Ten in the morning, so you have missed the beginning of the school day. You really need to stop oversleeping and go to school, you're probably worrying others. You really need coffee and breakfast, so you carefully get yourself out from under your two sleeping soulmates. You purr the slightest bit at how damn cute they look. You leave the room grinning at the boys and go make breakfast. You start to make enough waffles for the three of you and also start some coffee. The sound of you cooking seems to wake your Moirail, who sleepily enters the kitchen and rests his chin on your head and wraps his arms around your shoulders. You get a mug of coffee and drink it, as the current batch of waffles finishes. You attempt to go get them and remove your moirail in the process but he somehow manages to stay where he is. You pour more batter on the waffle iron and close it back as John sleepily enters the kitchen. Dave throws a waffle at John, hitting him square in the face.  
“Dave, why the fuck did you do that? I put time and goddamn effort into these fucking waffles,” you inform him, waving a batter coated spatula around and get a lot of batter on the two of you. You notice a large glob on his face and reach up to wipe it off. You purr at how sweet and nice this moment is. You’re worried that somehow all of this is going to take a turn for the worse very soon. You put aside the negative thoughts because you just want to enjoy this. Dave reaches over your head, narrowly avoiding touching your horn. He grabs a waffle and crams the rather large food item into his mouth whole. You had tried pretty damn hard to make these human style.  
“Hey this is pretty good! I’ve never really had waffles before but these are good. John, you should try one of these,” Dave enthuses. Suddenly, you feel his weight leave your shoulders and he’s instantly across the room, handing a confused John a waffle.  
“Dave, how the fuck did you do that?” you ask.  
“Do what? You guys were the ones not moving. Actually it seemed like nothing was moving. Everything was weirdly quiet too.”  
“Dave, did you fucking freeze time or something?”  
“I dunno but I suddenly feel kinda dizzy,” Dave responds before collapsing onto John. You rush over to help support him. You carry him to the couch and lay his now unconscious form on it. Your throat rumbles with nervous clicks as you and John sit in the two chairs beside the couch. You try to distract yourself from Dave by watching John instead. You notice his eyes are the color as the earth sea, beautiful as can be. You really would like to curl up beside him or hug him. He’s cute when he frowns. Suddenly, a jarrring distraction comes from a phone. A phone is loudly blaring what sounds like a presidential alert. You and John both scramble to your palmhusks to see what the fuck that shithead Trump has done this time.  
“President Trump is stepping down, and Betty Crocker is the new president of the United States,” the presidential alert informs you. You don’t know why, but you get a really horrible feeling about all of this. You open Twitter out of sheer boredom and the first thing you see is a tweet from a well know director, famous for the Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff series. D Strider. You almost wonder if Dave and this guy could be somehow miraculously fucking related.  
“betty crocker is secretly the condesce,” the tweet claims.  
“My sister, she’s a Crocker,” John speaks up, his voice shaky. “She would be the one to take over the Betty Crocker company if she hadn’t gone missing. Now I guess that would be what Jade and I do. Maybe the presidency is why dad is traveling so much.” John then gets a text from someone. “My guess is right. Jade and I now own the Betty Crocker baking company”  
You two sit in a bit of awkward silence, until you decide to research that Strider guy again. You go to his profile and see he seems to be identical to Dave. He has the same everything from the same hairstyle, to the cocky smirk that seems vaguely flirtatious you remember from the meteor. He even seems to wear suits like Dave always wore. You can even see he types the same. This can’t be a coincidence. You see he has a phone number listed.  
“John, I’m going to step out to take a very fucking important call,” you inform the boy before stepping outside. You dial the number but get redirected and are met with an annoyed female voice that sounds like Rose.  
“The idiot left his phone at my house again,” the girl mumbles. “Anyway, this is his private number yet you are not in his contacts. What do you want with my idiot brother.”  
“I didn’t call his private number first of fucking all. I fucking called though because Mr. Strider looks exactly like a clone of my moirail.”  
“Who might this moirail be?”  
“Dave Strider,” you tell her and then immediately regret giving out his private information.  
“Strider? I’ll look him up and see if he has any social media.” You hear a few clicks. “Ah, yes. I shall have to look into this. Wait, who the fuck is that,” a fearful whisper is heard. “This girl, Rose Lalonde looks just like me. I may need to contact my dear mother after a great many years. I must say goodbye for now. I need to ask your name, so I can inform my brother of this.”  
“Karkat Vantas.”  
“Vantas? Are you related to the Signless?”  
“Yes ma’am.”  
“Well, goodbye Karkat.”  
“Goodbye,” you say before she hung up. You return inside and see Dave is awake again, sitting upright on the couch. You join him and he immediately starts leaning on you, burying his face in your side. This position reminds you of one day on the meteor where Dave had a really fucking horrible dream. He had found you watching a movie on the couch and immediately sat next to you, burying his face in your shoulder the way he is now. Only then, his cape had been wrapped around the two of you. You decide to put on a movie.  
About thirty minutes into the movie, a phone buzzes with a notification announcing that president Crocker is closing all schools for the next week.  
“I should go to the store to get food, we need it,” you suggest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading, I am not especially happy with this. The name D for Alpha Dave belongs to Corvid_Knight.


	11. =>

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hal pesters Karkat and Dave to ask about feelings and attempt to help them get together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't have time to format at the moment. I may go back and edit this, I think it is not the only unformatted chatlog in the story.

AR: Hello Karkat  
CG: HELLO.  
AR: I have questions about your relationship with Dave. Do you have any flushed feelings for him?  
CG: SHIT. AM I REALLY THAT OBVIOUS?  
AR: No, you are not. I simply remember how you two dated during the game.  
AR: You should act on those feelings while you still can.  
—  
AR: Hello.  
TG: whats up  
AR: Dave, do you like Karkat?  
TG: Of course.  
AR: I mean romantically.  
TG: oh  
TG: yeah…  
AR: Dave, please confess to him while you still can. Something is coming. Something big.  
TG: hal?  
TG: what do you mean  
TG: what the fuck  
AR is offline!  
—  
CG: HEY DAVE, WHEN I GET BACK FROM THE STORE CAN WE TALK?  
TG: i actually need to talk about some shit too

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it is somewhat short. Also they aren't using exactly Pesterchum here. They use Pesterchum sometimes though. I've actually mostly been writing ahead. I will probably update tomorrow but the next chapter is not yet completed and I have to write a few thousand words for a class in the next few days so I may not work on this story as much. If I finish two chapters today I may double update so y'all don't have such a short chapter as the only thing today.


	12. => Karkat: Talk to Dave

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Karkat talks to Dave about feelings.

Karkat comes inside, carrying a few large bags of groceries. You rush over to help him carry them. What does he want to talk about? Does he want to stop being moirails?  
“Dave, I can’t stand being moirails with you anymore,” Karkat tells you and you can feel your heart break. “I want to be more. I like you as a moirail and a matesprit. I want you in multiple quadrants like the mutant fuckup I am,” Karkat tells you, and you shoosh him before he can go on anymore of a self-deprecating rant.  
“Oh, thank fuck,” you respond. He steps a bit closer then takes another step until he’s almost touching you. He’s shorter than you but if he were tall enough, your faces would be practically touching.  
“Do you want to kiss?” he asks.  
“If you can reach this,” you taunt. A laugh mixed with a growl builds in his throat.  
“You fucker! Dad said I’d grow taller if I drank milk. Everyone else in the family is taller!” he shouts before attempting to stand on tiptoes but he’s still a tiny bit too short. You’ll give him another minute or so since you do want to kiss him. He start repeatedly jumping. He then walks away and attempts to find a stepstool, but seems to return empty handed. He stares at you, a pout of determination that is getting to be to cute for you to resist. You lean down a little and cup his face in your hands. You two lean into the somewhat awkward kiss. Karkat starts purring and you can feel it from both where you have his face cupped in your hands and also in your lips. He awkwardly starts to pull away from the kiss, a heavy blush rising on his face.  
“Has anyone ever told you how goddamn cute you are? Like holy shit. When you blush? Fucking adorable. Purring? The goddamn cutest thing in the world. How is something that cute even legal?” He blushes even harder and tries to hide his face in his hands but the incredibly loud purring gives it away. “Don’t even get me started on how hot you are.” You have two ideas pop into your mind. The first being Karkat in high-waisted pants and a croptop sweater, one you push to the back of your mind to potentially convince him to wear at a later date. The former is how cute would Karkat be in your shades? You reach up to remove your shades, and place them softly on Karkat’s face. They’re slightly lopsided but that makes it cuter. He looks up at you, a slight confused look on his face from you suddenly giving him shades. This is so cute, you need to take a photo. You grab your phone from your pocket and capture just how adorable he is. You wonder what he would look like in your signature broken record shirt. You have a lot of outfit ideas he’d look either adorable or hot as hell in. You plant a quick kiss on his forehead before turning to exit the room, shades still off.  
“I’m gonna go unpack, I took the first set of waffles out and put in some more. The last batch was put in like ten minutes ago,” John awkwardly shouts before leaving to go next door. You think you smell burning.  
“Fuck! The waffle iron,” Karkat shouts.  
“Kinky.”  
“That is not what I meant you fucking bulgewaffle and you fucking know that.”  
“Does Karkat fuck waffle irons? More at six,” you tease, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek.  
“I love you too, but I need to shut off the waffle iron before the house catches fire,” Karkat informs you before turning out of the room to shut the waffle iron off. He opens it and waves the smoke away from the smoke detector, which is now wildly beeping. He waits a bit before grabbing it. He pulls out an extremely burnt waffle and flings it towards the trash can but hits you instead. You burst out laughing, partially at the crusty waffle that has taken residence on your head and partially at the shocked expression on Karkat’s face. After a second Karkat joins in with your laughter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about not updating yesterday, I really have no excuses. I'll post two chapters tomorrow because I did not update yesterday. Chapter 13 is not written but the next two mostly are.


	13. => D: Wake the fuck up.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A new character’s point of view. D wakes up and has a new message from his sister.

You wake up at fuck knows what o clock, still in a rumpled suit jacket. You just didn’t feel like taking it off. Fucking executive dysfunction. You had been doing that thing where you disappear from the public eye for at least a week at a time and just drive You had tweeted once, right after the new president came into office. How did Condy do this? You have no idea. You had used your laptop to tweet, having lost your phone. It didn’t really matter. You have no friends besides Roe and she’s your sister. If she needs to talk to you, she’ll use that encrypted messager you made and you’ll get it on all devices. Well speak of the damn devil. Roe has sent you a long and rambling message. 

TT: Well dear brother, you seem to have forgotten your phone at my home. I have to inform you that someone has called. It was a young boy who informed us our family is larger than we may have imagined. You don’t read the rest, you’re already close enough to home to visit your shithead dad. You can drive there in hour. Roe’ll give you your phone later or you can buy a new one. You really don’t give a shit. You shove everything into bags and head down to check out of the hotel, not even bothering on your appearance. You toss everything into your car and shove an ironic cassette into the tape drive. You drive an old car and ignore most everyone who says someone of your social standing should have a nice car or whatever bullshit. You drive until you reach the familiar town where you were raised. You have no clue if your family still lives here but it's a good first attempt. You drive around a few corners and pull into the parking lot of your apartment building. You park your car and walk into the front office. “Does Derrick Strider still live here? I know it’s been years but I need to see him.” “Yes, but-” “Fan-fucking-tastic,” you respond before walking into the elevator. You hit the button that takes you up to the thirteenth floor, before walking over to room four. You remove a small key from your sylladex, hoping your father was “too cool” to change it or some bullshit like that. You insert the key into the lock and it unlocks. You slowly creak the door open. You are met with a very faint smell of blood. You open the door all the way and are met with a mostly familiar sight. You see all the swords Bro had and then a whole fucking lot more. One hanging on the wall has a blood stain that makes your stomach do a small somersault. The kitchen is full of weapons and a robot that stands sentry beside it. The robot seemingly scans you with its eyes. It doesn’t seem like Derrick made it though. You see a small trail of blood leading to the door. You glance around and see some posters and a small drawing on the fridge door with a style a lot like SBAHJ. You walk over to better examine the drawing and accidentally open the fridge, spilling fireworks all over yourself. You glance up from the pile of rockets and are met with the sight of a trapdoor. You pull yourself out of the rockets and decide to check out the trapdoor last. You turn to open the door to the room where you grew up and see it is very different. It has two beds for one. The dresser aside the beds has the tops drawer thrown open and it is completely devoid of clothes. You can see other spots where things were taken away as well. The closet door creaks open and you see something that looks unsettlingly close to a body bag that has been vacated. You walk over and see it has what looks like a charger. You guess it may be for a robot. You move it aside and see nothing else of much note. You exit the room and decide now would be when you go up to the roof. You open the trapdoor and climb up to the roof. You see a sickeningly large puddle of blood with a crow beside it. An omen of death is what Roe would call this. You sure hope it isn’t a death omen though. You approach it and see it’s pretty fucking bad. The blood smell is sickening here. This is really fucking bad, whatever it is. Suddenly you hear the front door of the apartment open. “Who the fuck are you?” a voice asks from I side the apartment. They sound like Derrick but younger.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for not updating as much, I’ve been busy. I also delayed plot points until a bit later so I can write certain ideas I had that would not have fit in the original pacing. This chapter was originally going to be a John chapter but I couldn’t figure out what I wanted with that but I got the idea for this. I lost all my paragraph separation on this chapter, so I apologize in advance for any mistakes made with my hasty attempt to fix it.   
> My tumblr is my-chemicalkismesis and I may be posting things related to this fic at some point. I hope to update this again today or tomorrow but I am somewhat busy but sometime around 11/12 I should get back on track with this because I have nothing planned after the 11-9-11/11 convention I’m going to.


	14. => D: Greet Your Unexpected Guest

You whirl around as the person climbs up the trapdoor. You see white blond hair that’s spiky. He’s also wearing anime shades like Derrick’s and he has strange circuitry tattoos on his face.  
“I could be asking you the same,” you respond while trying to hide all emotion from your voice.  
“Hal. Hal Strider.”  
“So you’re my younger brother? Huh. The name’s D.”  
“I suppose I am your brother, even if it is somewhat complicated. See, I’m not really human. I’m a clone of one of our other brothers.”  
“Okay…? Can you tell me what the fuck happened here with this blood?”  
“Ah. That was Dave, our youngest brother. He was strifing our father.”  
“Is he okay?” you question with fear and concern creeping into your voice.  
“He is alive and well. However I do not know if I can say the same for Dirk and Roxy. The middle set of twins. They have both been missing for nearly two years.”  
“Wait, how many siblings do I have?”  
“There’s the two sets of twins in addition to myself, which totals up to five.”  
“Six. I have a twin too.”  
“Ah. I shall update my files,” he tells you before his eyes are replaced by a computer screen with code. A sound like a text notification dings and his eyes turn back to normal. He quickly types something on his phone. “I had informed Dave of someone being in the apartment and after informing him on the new development that is that you are here, he would like to meet you.”  
“Oh shit. Cool.”  
“He would not like to come here however. He is suggesting perhaps meeting at his current place of residence.”  
“Wherever is cool with me.”  
“Ok. I can give you the address. Dave has informed me he needs half an hour however, so perhaps we could chat until then.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey readers! It's Halloween so I'm going to be busy all night but have a chapter I wrote yesterday. Tomorrow's chapter is going to introduce two new characters. It might take a bit because I have very little inspiration for this chunk but I really want to work on it. I will also probably have a John chapter as soon as possible, but I am unsure of when that will be. I give it 16 at the earliest, probably later. I really have been neglecting the JOHNDaveKat part so far. I actually could shove a John chapter in inbetween these, for a little suspense or some bullshit. I don't know though.


	15. Dave: => Be Shown Something

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Karkat has something to show Dave.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me, posting this at four am? Anyway what the fuck is up? I’m listening to Danger Days and in a rambling mood as I post this. Should I make a Discord for this fic? I dunno. I drew Karkat and John and I will draw Dave. I also have a few headcanons I really need to mention soon.

"Dave, I want to show you something," Karkat says before taking your hand. "My dad had a study I found about a year ago. The door was hidden behind a painting of him and The Dolorosa," Karkat continues before pausing in front of a massive oil painting. He plucked it off the wall, revealing a door. He slowly opened it, showing a large room full of books. You look around and see a large desk, tables covered in papers, a rug with a strange lump under it, a large screen and a small couch. Your phone dings with a few texts from Hal you quickly respond to, hoping you won’t spend too long in this study. You walk around and run a hand over the rough natural surface of a troll computer. It’s strange and seemingly alive. What the fuck is up with troll tech. You look around in many other places and find a very large thing filled with necklaces like the symbol on all of Karkat’s hoodies. Karkat walks up behind you and takes the bag from your hands. He removes one and holds it in his palm. He removes a near identical one from inside his sweater and compares the two. His seems to be a coppery color while the other is a solid grey iron.   
“Still prototypes but nowhere near as old as the one I wear. These seem to be after they were made rustproof, unlike mine.” He examines the bag some more and an astonished look crosses his face. “These are made of all different metals, like silver and gold. Gold is an odd choice, considering it’s the color of the Psiioniic’s blood. Would you like one of them? It is also my sign, and on Alternia you’d often wear a quadrantmate’s sign or blood color.”  
“Sure, they seem cool. His teachings have a cool message too.”   
“Okay, I think I see some cords over there,” he says pointing to a spot past the rug. You walk over with him but trip on the rug and move it several inches away from where it was.   
“Holy shit, are you okay?”   
“Yeah, I’m good.”   
“Wait, what the fuck?” he questions before dropping to the ground next to you. You see that there is an extremely large trapdoor in the ground. Karkat takes your hand and you can feel the cold silver of the necklace in his palm. He slowly creaks open the trapdoor, and you see a small dim light coming from a bizarre underground tunnel. You unclasp hands and drop into the tunnel. The trapdoor closes on it’s own behind you. Karkat gently places the necklace around your neck.   
“So, wanna explore?” you ask your boyfriend. Wow, calling him your boyfriend feels really fucking nice, even if it’s not even out loud.   
“I fucking guess. I can’t say I’m not worried about whatever shit we’re going to find though.”   
“I’m sure nothing will go wrong,” you tell him. You look at his nervous expression and you want to make it go away. You also want to kiss your boyfriend. Maybe the two can be combined. You lean down and give him a tiny kiss on the cheek. Your goal is achieved, his nervous grin is replaced by a candy apple red blush spread across his cheeks with a tiny, flustered and lovestruck grin. You two begin slowly walking along the tunnel before taking a break below a hatch the color of gold blood.   
“Wanna listen to music? I’m curious as to what the fuck the acoustics down here’ll do.” Karkat grabs his phone out of his pocket and starts scrolling through his music library. He clicks on a playlist and a song starts with a few sentences.   
“Listen up  
The future is bulletproof,” the lyrics begin and continue into the rest of the song.   
“Dude, I didn’t know you listened to MCR.”  
“I fucking do. So what?”  
“They’re like one of my favorite bands. I promise I won’t mock you for being emo anymore than I make fun of myself.”   
You two sit hand in hand while listening to Danger Days and talk for a bit before you hear something from above the trapdoor.   
“Why the fuck does it sound like Party Poison is playing through my goddamn floor?” a lispy voice from above loudly questions before a quiet tone responds. You hear some more shuffling and then the door above you is opened. A troll with a lot of rings and a streak of Violet hair is standing above the opening, beside a troll with red and blue glasses. You and Karkat jump out of the way of the pair.   
“Wwho the fuck are you?” the troll with the rings questions you.   
“We were in his house and we found a door, we climbed down it and found ourselves in these funky ass tunnels full of doors,” you begin.   
“That’s weird as fuck,” the lispy troll replies. The one with the rings whispers something and then they start arguing.   
“Bee fucker.”  
“Fish breath.”  
“Is that really the best you can come up wwith, p-” he begins to insult him again but the lispy troll pulls him into a kiss before he can say whatever insult. These two are that hate-romance you guess.   
“Is that a kismet fish?” you whisper, unable to remember the actual name.   
“Kismesis, and probably.”   
“Fucking fine,” the ring troll says.   
“Glad we agree,” the lispy troll begins before turning to address you two. “I’m Sollux. Sollux Captor.”  
“Captor as in the Psiioniic?” Karkat questions.   
“Yes.”  
“Holy shit, I’ve been looking for someone who knew my father. I’m Karkat Vantas.”   
“Vantas? Holy fuck. I had no idea. I wish I knew where the fuck my dad was. I am going to assume Signless is missing too.”   
“Sadly, he is,” Karkat tells Sollux while fiddling with his necklace.   
“I’ve been looking for leads on him, but no luck. Also I think we totally forgot to introduce our friends.”  
“I’m Dave Strider,” you introduce yourself awkwardly.   
“I’m Eridan Ampora,” the troll with the rings states. Suddenly, your phone starts dinging with a shitton of messages.   
AR: We have nearly arrived.  
AR: We are on the premises.   
AR: However it seems the same cannot be said for you.   
AR: Where are you? This is concerning to say the least.   
TG: shit   
TG: uhhhh  
TG: go in the study and open the trapdoor  
AR: I believe I have found the destination you have mentioned.   
You hear a sound and two distant voices, far away from you.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, EriSol I guess. John POV chapter coming soon! I still haven’t finished it though… Updates are hopefully going to remain regular but I can make no promises. Party Poison is my favorite song and I forgot everything else in this chapter.


	16. John: => Sexuality Crisis

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> John thinks about some things.

You can’t be gay, right? You’ve never liked a girl, but you’ve also never liked a guy. Your hand subconsciously glides to the scarred soulmarks on your neck. Gender aside, something is seriously wrong with one or both of your soulmates. You look at the pale scars on your much darker arms. Everyone hurt so bad, yet whoever this pain was inflicted on had it so much worse. You feel really bad for them. You trace another scar on your arm, following it up your less than skinny bicep. You sit back on your couch and reflect on your conversations with Dave and Karkat now that you have the knowledge they could be your Soulmates, if you were gay. But you can’t be gay? Sure, you’re already LGBT because you’re trans but you simply cannot be gay. That just can’t be possible. You guess you have nothing against gay people since Dave and Karkat are gay. Though if Dave’s gay, anyone could be gay. You could be gay. Actually, you may be gay. You should talk to Dave and Karkat later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A pretty short chapter in the middle of some other shit. I forgot the point of this chapter.


	17. Chapter 17

Hal is walking towards you beside someone who looks like an older version of you. You two look at eachother and he seems as confused as you are. Actually, everyone looks extremely confused about this whole thing. Hal calmly approaches you.   
“Dave, this is D. He is our older brother by many years. D, this is Dave. He is our youngest brother,” Hal informs the two of you.   
“Yo,” D greets you.   
“Sup,” you reply. Karkat, who was talking to Eridan and Sollux turns to you three and stands right beside you.   
“Who’s your friend?” D asks.   
“I’m Karkat,” he introduces himself before turning and whispering to you. “Should we inform him friend is not exactly accurate?”   
“Probably should,” you whisper back. “Friend ain’t exactly right.”  
“Oh shit, are you guys just like acquaintances or some shit. I shouldn’t’ve just assumed y’all were friends.”  
“That’s the exact fucking opposite. And if we were just acquaintances, why would we be so close and clearly know shit you two don’t and-” Karkat rants before you tap his shoulder.   
“Dude, just tell him,” you whisper.   
“Right. What I mean to say is Dave and I are dating,” Karkat says before taking your hand. It sounds weird but fucking fantastic to hear that said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is pretty short but I got really bad writers block at this point. May skip ahead a few hours, I really don't know.


	18. John: => Talk to your Soulmates

It takes you a few hours but you manage to work up the courage to go talk to Dave and Karkat. You knock on the door and Karkat answers. You can hear unfamiliar voices echoing from inside.   
“Can I talk to you and Dave? Like in private?”  
“Ok. I’ll get Dave and we can talk in the dining room,” Karkat replies while leading you into the living room. You see two people who like like Dave having a chat with him. “Dave, can you talk in the other room with me and John?”  
“Yeah, sure. Be right back.”   
“So,” you nervously begin, your hand drifting up to your neck. “I’m not going to dance around this. Are you guys my soulmates?”  
“Hell. Fucking. Yes,” Dave replies.  
“Does that mean I’m dating you guys?”   
“Only if you want to be,” Karkat replies this time.   
“I do. You guys have been my friends for so long, and I think I did have a crush on you guys without even knowing it.”  
“Cool,” Dave replies simply. A knock is heard on the door to the dining room.   
“We’re going to get going now,” an unfamiliar voice calls that you assume was the younger of the two individuals.   
“Ok. Bye,” Dave calls back.   
“Do you guys want to hang out? We could watch Con-Air?”  
“John, I love you but fuck no,” Karkat replies and you feel your heart flutter a bit when he says I love you.   
“I think it’s about time to eat,” Dave comments.   
“Shit. I was supposed to meet Jade for dinner. You guys can probably come too. You’ve talked over Pesterchum plenty of times. I think she was going to introduce me to her girlfriends. I’ll text her and ask if you guys can come too!”   
EB: hey jade!  
EB: can i bring two guests?  
EB: specifically my boyfriends?  
GG: you have boyfriends?  
GG: congratulations john!!  
GG: and of course they can come!  
“Jade says you can come.”   
“Nice.”   
You three drive to the restaurant Jade gave you the address of earlier. You open the door and make a reservation, seeing that Jade and her girlfriends have not arrived.   
The three of you wait for a few minutes before Jade arrives with them.   
“Wait, you’re the same Jade as GG? How the fuck did I not figure that out sooner?” Karkat questions. In the background, Rose seems surprised at this.  
“I don’t really know,” she grins. “Sooo, you’re John’s boyfriend?”  
“One of them.”   
“Nice! Who’s the other one?” she asks before looking around and spotting Dave.   
“Yo,” Dave greets. “GG, huh? It’s nice to see you in person.”  
“Gonna guess you’re Dave,” she giggles.  
“That is correct.”  
“Dave, what are you doing here?” Rose asks.  
“I could ask you the same thing.”  
“Well, I am on a date with Jade and Kanaya.”  
“I’m on a date with John and Karkat.”  
“Wait a second. Rose, are you TT?”  
“Yes. Yes I am. I must say it is quite a shock to learn you are the same Jade. However, I suppose the two of us were never close. I suppose I should have figured that out after those dreams.”  
“Dreams? Did I wear a weird black thing with a white symbol on it and you wore orange?”  
“How did you know.”  
“You had those too?” Kanaya questions.  
“I think all of us had those fucking god awful dreams,” Karkat states. You definitely have had some of those dreams. You’ve been getting them while awake too since meeting Dave and Karkat. Then you are informed you will now be seated and take a place at a table. You choose food and beverages.   
“Do you remember people dying in the dreams?” Karkat asks.  
“I do, I think it happened a great many times,” Kanaya replies.   
“I can remember dying a lot. SBurb was some fucked shit,” Dave states.  
“SBurb, I couldn’t remember the name,” Rose remarks.  
“I fucking wish I didn’t remember any of that fuckery. It all seems so goddamn real and today the fucking memories didn’t even stick to just dreams. The worst goddamn part is I met the guy who fucking killed Kanaya earlier. She then killed him but I can’t remember how the fuck it happened. He’s my fucking goddamn friend too,” Karkat rants before bursting into tears. You and Dave quickly seek to comfort your boyfriend. Dave paps him on the cheek and that seems to help him not cry as much and he calms down not long after that.  
“Who from SBurb have we found?” Kanaya asks.  
“The six of us, Some guy named Equius Zahhak, Aradia Megido, Sollux Captor and Eridan Ampora,” Dave supplies.   
“Good to know.” Kanaya responds.  
The six of you spend the rest of the meal discussing what you remember about the game.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the lack of chapters, I have been extra busy lately and I have had really quite dissatisfactory inspiration. I had to cut this short because I had no idea where to go but I have part of the next chapter written. I probably will not update consistently this weekend because I have Con. I also will be attending an even around six tomorrow. Next week, I will hopefully have a more regular update schedule. I am also planning a fic at the moment that I may work on rather than this. If that is posted soon you should read it. Shit'll get real in this fic pretty damn soon. I also have a chapter introducing a very important character prewritten that I will post as soon as I get to a very important plot point.  
> I accidentally made Jade already know them over Pesterchum so please disregard the message in a previous chapter. I also noticed I said the Striders grew up in this town, yet knew the Megidoes in Texas. I will say that they lived in Texas for a bit when they were young but moved back. Also, I feature this story to be set in a town much like the towns that reside in "The Triangle" in North Carolina which is Chapel Hill, Raleigh and Durham I believe so keep that in mind in later chapters.


	19. Karkat: => Awake to tears

You wake up in tears from your dream. You watched everyone you know and care about die.How many times have you had these dreams?  
“Kat, you okay?” Dave asks.   
“Yeah, just another fucking horrible dream.”  
“Hey, I’m sure whatever the fuck it was about will never happen,” he tells you before pulling your thick, curly hair back from your face. You feel your fins become exposed to the cool night air of your bedroom. Dave definitely seems to notice your fins. You pull your turtleneck down to show him your gills.   
“Ah. I suppose you would find out about those sooner or later. My shitty ass mutation made me a seaweller for god knows why.”  
“That’s cool. So are you like a fish like that Eridan guy?”  
“Yeah, but I don’t use shitty fish puns like…” Wait, who the fuck uses fish puns? “I don’t use those and I usually stay away from the ocean.”   
“Well we have pretty nice beaches here so if you ever do want to chill by a beach we totally can.”   
“Huh, that actually sounds nice,” you say, taking Dave’s hand in your own. “Earth beaches don’t try and kill you, right?”   
“Nope, unless you like hit a shark.”  
“That sounds nice, maybe we should head to the beach sometime.”   
“Wait, what time is it?” Dave asks.  
“I have actually no fucking clue.” You glance around to try and see your alarm clock despite you and Dave now sitting with your back to it. You can see the hour place has a three. “It seems to be around three.”   
“I’m not tired.”  
“Neither am I. You wanna do some shit?”  
“Sure.” You two stand up and walk downstairs. You walk past the study and see the painting had fallen. You go to put it up and something compels you to enter the room instead.   
“You want to explore the tunnels?” Dave asks.   
“Why the fuck not?” You open the tunnel and swear you see a distant light. Actually, that light might be getting closer. Actually that light is getting closer. You can hear footsteps and you can see a large feminine figure with long dark hair. The figure gets closer and you can see curved ram horns. Wait, is that Aradia? She closes the distance between you.   
She starts saying something quick in Japanese. Dave quickly responds and they have a conversation in very excited Japanese. They start laughing and you’re glad Dave was reunited with his old friend. She giggles at something he said. Suddenly, her clothes change into a red outfit with a gear on the chest and bandaged legs. She says something in Japanese that seemed to sound like “Oh fuck, not again” and you recognize that outfit. It was worn during SGrub.   
“Oh, I need to introduce you guys. Karkat, this is my old friend Aradia. Aradia, this is my boyfriend Karkat.”   
“Well, hello Karkat,” Aradia regards you critically.   
“Hey.”   
You three talk about nothing in particular in a mix of English and Alternian for a while, until you hear a hatch opening in the distance. You stiffen and watch the direction, trying to hide your fear but failing pretty miserably.   
“Jesus fucking christ KK, don’t lose your shit. It’s just us.”  
“It’s too fuckin early for this shit Sol.” A grin grows on Aradia’s face as she lunges down and starts unraveling the bandages on her leg. What the fuck is she doing? You look and then you notice them. Violet and gold text. So Sollux and Eridan are her Soulmates. She runs over to begin to chat with them.   
Eventually the chat wraps up and the three turn to talk to you.   
“KK, I actually need to ask you something. This sounds weird, but do you remember SGrub too?”  
“I do remember it.”   
“SGrub?” Aradia asks. “So those dreams, that really happened?”  
“Yep, it did.”   
You three talk until Dave’s wake up alarm on his phone goes off. You two decide to leave to go get breakfast.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think the real plot may begin very soon! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I'm tired and I should be finishing my cosplay yet I am not. Uhh yeet!


	20. Dave=> Answer The Door

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just noticed I fucked up with one of the tags but it has been fixed.

You get up to answer the door and immediately see something is very, very wrong. John is at the door and he’s crying. Karkat is at your side soon and John practically collapses onto you two. You’re going to assume it was a particularly shitty nightmare until told otherwise despite it being around four in the afternoon. You two carry him over to the couch.  
“John, what happened?” you gently inquire to not to farther upset him.  
“He’s just like Jane,” is the only thing John tells you before bursting into more sobs. You really need to keep talking to him but you need to figure out who Jane is. Hal can probably scan any and all files so you ask him.  
TG: yo hal i need some info  
TG: does john egbert have any family members named jane  
TG: its an emergency  
AR: His grandmother is Jane Egbert. She died when he was quite young.  
AR: Ah dear, it seems I know his sister.  
AR: Jane Crocker, a missing person since her 18th birthday and a member of the SBurb Alpha session.  
TG: so someone is either dead or missing  
“John, please tell me who this is about,” you prompt him again.  
“Dad,” he tells you through sobs.  
You quickly whisper the Jane thing to Karkat so he knows what’s up.  
TG: he says his dad is like jane  
TG: so either dead or missing  
AR: Well he probably would call Jane Egbert, Nanna or something like that. So I assume missing.  
“We’ll find him, I promise. We’ll find all our missing family members,” you try to reassure him. He pulls you into a hugh.  
“What if I lose you two too?” he asks, sobbing into your shoulder too.  
“John, that’ll never happen. I would never let anyone lay a finger on you or Karkat. I care too much about you for me to let that happen.”  
“But what about you?” John asks, barely understandable though all his sobs.  
"I'm tough. I've been trained to fight, if someone tried to kill me I can fight back.”  
“I don’t want to lose you, either of you.”  
“I don’t want to lose you either, and I promise it won’t happen,” Karkat reassures him.  
You three sit with John for a while, comforting him. Eventually, Hal begins texting you about god knows what. You suppose you really should check that. You pick up the phone and open the messages.  
AR: Dave, go to the apartment.  
AR: Now.  
“Guys, I need to go to my apartment. I don’t know why but Hal says it’s important and urgent.” You make a motion to stand up and the others get up as well, John still hugging you. You three all get up and pile into your car. You drive to your apartment, dreading as to why Hal wants you to return there. You pull into the parking lot, a frown growing on your face. You exit the truck and enter the building, going upstairs. You open your door, and see a very concerned Rose who has tear streaks down her face.  
“Dave, thank fuck you’re okay. Our parents are missing and I feared for you. When I saw you were absent from your home, I feared the worst for you.”  
“They went missing?”  
“Yes, they did.”  
“Hm. John’s dad went missing too. Also, I left here and I am currently at Karkat’s house,” you inform your twin. She raises an eyebrow at that, which you choose to ignore. “Rose, we need to talk to someone else about this.”  
TG: hal  
TG: where can i find d  
AR: He is at a hotel in the area. I will ask him if I can give you the address.  
AR: [Sent a location!]  
AR: Room 111.  
“I’ll drive there and you follow me.” You exit the apartment, having never been so glad to leave somewhere.  
You arrive at the hotel and take the elevator up to the room. You knock on the door, and D answers after a moment.  
“Is everything alright?”  
“It is most certainly not,” Rose says. D looks at her for a bit before opening his mouth to speak.  
“What the fuck? You look like Roe did when we were younger.”  
“Roe? My name is Rose. I could say you look like an older version of Dave.”  
“Oh, wait. Are you Dave’s twin?”  
“Yes, yes I am.”  
“Cool. I’m your older brother D. Roe is my twin.”  
“Hm. Well now I see why Dave has said we need to come here. Our parents have been said to be missing.”  
“Oh shit. I think I have a guess of where they went. I think president Crocker has them.”  
“Oh, and why is that?”  
“I’ll explain it, just I can’t out here. Not safe. We can discuss in in my hotel room I guess.” You five enter the room. “This may sound strange, but do you believe in past lives or alternate universes?” he asks and you glance around the room at eachother.  
“Yes, we do,” Rose responds.  
“This probably sounds crazy, but there was another universe I was in where my sister and I fought against The Condesce, who had overtaken Earth and she used the name Betty Crocker in that universe.”  
“I remember that universe,” Hal’s voice states from your phone. “I lived in your distant future, I knew your story. Dirk viewed you as a brother and a hero.”  
“Oh. I think we need to figure out where government facilities that could contain the missing people are.”  
“I believe there is one at the beach,” Rose speaks up.  
“Well, we did say we wanted to go to the beach,” you grin at Karkat.  
“I suppose while we are here, I should mention SBurb to you. SBurb was a game the four of us all played. It transported us to another universe. We’ve met five other players so far. We should bring them as well.”  
“I feel like I heard the release of that mentioned once in the other universe.”  
“We can go tell the other players of this,” Rose says.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It has been a bit since I updated but I have posted another fic. I may not update again for a few days, but here is the actual plot starting. I think that the next chapter will have a character who has not really been in here much but has been mentioned, but I have two ways I could go with next chapter because I have something written I could use for it but I could also have Feferi appear and have some AraSolFef. Thanks for reading, Kudos and comments mean so much to authors.


	21. Dirk: => Begin the chapter with a normal morning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TW: Blood, Death.

You wake up, another morning means another shitty motel. You dress yourself in your binder, a white shirt, some jeans and your shades. The shades could risk Condy finding you but hopefully you’re far enough from home that nobody’ll be looking for you. You’re so close to reaching your destination. Your destination being the government facility in Lincoln County, Nevada. Area 51. You glance at the Soulmark on your hand, wondering who it is. It was the only thing that gave you hope of not being forever trapped in that prison. It’s a dark grey, like the messages from UU. You have one Tumblr notification from the blog of none other than D Strider. Your brother had been out of the public eye for quite some time now, aside from one theory about the newly instated President Crocker. You click the Tumblr post.  
Dstride: so i guess my dad is missing  
#he sucked as a parent #and as a person  
You can definitely agree with him being a shitty guy. You quickly google Derrick Strider in search of more information. You confirm that he is missing, along with your mother and Jane and Jake’s father. Hm. You wonder how things are going for the rest of your family. Hal is probably still trapped in the closet. You decide to see if you can still access Hal’s logs remotely. You open the software and enter your passwords. You are immediately met with a view that is definitely not the inside of your closet on the camera feed. It seems to be the inside of a hotel room, you can see D, Dave and Rose beside some unfamiliar faces. You can hear chunks of a conversation through the audio.  
“Someone is accessing my files, presumably watching us at the moment,” Hal states before bringing a hand up to his eyes. “Talk in the chatbox who you are.” A chat appears.  


Hal, this is Dirk.

“Dirk?” he asks, his voice somehow showing more emotion than it should.  
You hear a loud knock on the door, either from room service or a minion of the Condesce. You rush over to the door and peer through the peephole. You see an individual in a suit that clearly works for fishbitch.  


She found me. Shit.  


“Dirk? Who found you?” You grab your katana and answer the door. The agent enters your room. You watch them remove a taser from their pocket. You knock it out of their hand with a sword and injure them slightly. Blood falls on the white carpet. That's no good.  
“Dirk?” Dave asks, panic rising in his voice. You need to deal with this body, but first you hang up on the call. You lift the body up and move it to the bathtub, seeing as you can rinse that after you finish. Now, you need to clean yourself up and find a trash bag. You wash your hands under the sink, thinking you should feel guilty about this. You just don't though. You look at yourself in the mirror and you can’t say that you don't feel painfully like you might be becoming your father at times. You look more like him. Aside from a lot more scars, you really look like a miniature version of him. The thought makes you sick to your stomach. You somehow managed to only get your hands bloody. This was a cleaner kill than most. You walk out of your room and cross the street to get to the small convenience store that’ll hopefully have bags big enough to fit a corpse in. You’re pretty sure the hotel had an incinerator, so you can use that to deal with the body. You also need some cleaning supplies but you really would not like to look suspicious. You guess you’ll have to make a few stops. Here you can buy trash bags and gloves and just look like you're cleaning. You walk over to the cash register and place your items on the counter.  
“Hehe, cleaning, am I right?” you remark to the cashier as you get the money. You walk to another store after placing these in your room and buy hydrogen peroxide. You quickly set to work disposing of the body.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think Dirk woke up at like three in the afternoon here because that's the only way this would make since I think. I wrote most of this well over a week ago. Some even longer ago. The beginning was one of the first things I wrote in this AU. I've been working on a new fic lately. As always, I thank you all so much for your Kudos and comments absolutely make my day!!


	22. Chapter 22

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! I kinda don't really want to continue this, but it's popular and I do like the plot. I just dislike my old writing. It's full of plotholes and shit. But yeah, here's a chapter. I'll probably update this not too often.

Dirk is in trouble. You don't know who found him, but he's gone. The Condesce is the likely culprit. Which means he’s probably being held in a government facility. You guess it’s time to head to the beach.   
“So, we gonna go to Crockercorp facilities to find him or what?”   
“That is the most logical course of action,” Rose replies.   
“We should find all the SBurb and SGrub players we can.”   
You go to find Aradia, and when you knock on her door, someone else answers. It’s a girl with a lot of jewelry and a fuschia sign on her chest.   
“Oh, is this the wrong house?” you ask. “We were looking for Aradia Megido.”  
“This is the right hive!” She turns to shout into the house. “Ara, someone’s here to see you!” You hear footsteps coming from inside and Aradia quickly approaches. Her cheerful demeanor falls when she sees your somber expressions.   
“Is something wrong?”  
“We’re trying to find all the SBurb players, we think we’re in danger.”  
“SBurb? Why do I remember that?”   
“We found another member of one of our sessions it seems,” Rose comments.   
“Oh, I for shore thought those memories were just glubbed up shit from my brain. So, all of that happened?”   
“It did, and then it seems we created another universe. I know this can all be rather traumatic-”   
“Rose, cut out the therapist bullshit,” Karkat orders. “We’re here for a fucking reason. Can we gather everyone who’s here in a place to talk?”   
“Sure! You can chat in the living room!” Aradia offers. She leads you into her hive and you sit on a couch. Eridan and Sollux were already talking in there.   
“Okay, we need to talk. So, all four of you were in the game, as you remember.”   
“KK, I know what you’re talking about but I’m thinking of that stupid wriggler game where if you think of it, you lose the game.”   
“Fuck you!” Dave mutters.  
“Little forward,” Sollux replies.   
“Shut the fuck up you two, we need to get back to the main point. So, as you probably have noticed, everyone’s Dancestors vanished when they turned eighteen human years old. And now guardians of the humans have begun to do the same, just as President Crocker came into power. President Crocker, as we have probably all figured out, is actually Her Imperious Fuckface. She probably is going to go after us next, so we aren’t safe staying in one place. We’ve found all the humans, and some of the trolls. We’ve found all of the trolls here and Equius and Kanaya. I don’t know if just the names alone will remind you of who they are, but they were our friends. I think there were twelve of us. One of each blood color. We need to find everyone and also free family members from Crockercorp holding facilities. Which means we need to get ready to get the fuck out of this town. We’ll give you some time to get ready, and we won’t force you to come. It isn’t very safe to stay though, but you can just go into hiding if you choose not to come with us. Our first stop is a Crockercrop ‘research’ facility at the beach. We’ll give you a chance to think over this, before we go talk to Equius and then find Kanaya.”   
“I’ve already informed Equius of the situation, he’s preparing to go,” Hal informs you.   
“Then we need only to inform Kanaya and Jade. Excellent.”   
Those two are now getting ready to get the fuck out of here. Things are going according to plan, as far as you can tell.


	23. Chapter 23

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It switches to Karkat's POV early on, but starts out from Dave's point of view. EDIT: Removed a scene because I wanted to change the order of the events.

Dirk is in trouble. You don't know who found him, but he's gone. The Condesce is the likely culprit. Which means he’s probably being held in a government facility. You guess it’s time to head to the beach.  
“So, we gonna go to Crockercorp facilities to find him or what?”  
“That is the most logical course of action,” Rose replies.  
“We should find all the SBurb and SGrub players we can.”  
You go to find Aradia, and when you knock on her door, someone else answers. It’s a girl with a lot of jewelry and a fuschia sign on her chest.  
“Oh, is this the wrong house?” you ask. “We were looking for Aradia Megido.”  
“This is the right hive!” She turns to shout into the house. “Ara, someone’s here to see you!” You hear footsteps coming from inside and Aradia quickly approaches. Her cheerful demeanor falls when she sees your somber expressions.  
“Is something wrong?”  
“We’re trying to find all the SBurb players, we think we’re in danger.”  
“SBurb? Why do I remember that?”  
“We found another member of one of our sessions it seems,” Rose comments.  
“Oh, I for shore thought those memories were just glubbed up shit from my brain. So, all of that happened?”  
“It did, and then it seems we created another universe. I know this can all be rather traumatic-”  
“Rose, cut out the therapist bullshit,” Karkat orders. “We’re here for a fucking reason. Can we gather everyone who’s here in a place to talk?”  
“Sure! You can chat in the living room!” Aradia offers. She leads you into her hive and you sit on a couch. Eridan and Sollux were already talking in there.  
“Okay, we need to talk. So, all four of you were in the game, as you remember.”  
“KK, I know what you’re talking about but I’m thinking of that stupid wriggler game where if you think of it, you lose the game.”  
“Fuck you!” Dave mutters.  
“Little forward,” Sollux replies.  
“Shut the fuck up you two, we need to get back to the main point. So, as you probably have noticed, everyone’s Dancestors vanished when they turned eighteen human years old. And now guardians of the humans have begun to do the same, just as President Crocker came into power. President Crocker, as we have probably all figured out, is actually Her Imperious Fuckface. She probably is going to go after us next, so we aren’t safe staying in one place. We’ve found all the humans, and some of the trolls. We’ve found all of the trolls here and Equius and Kanaya. I don’t know if just the names alone will remind you of who they are, but they were our friends. I think there were twelve of us. One of each blood color. We need to find everyone and also free family members from Crockercorp holding facilities. Which means we need to get ready to get the fuck out of this town. We’ll give you some time to get ready, and we won’t force you to come. It isn’t very safe to stay though, but you can just go into hiding if you choose not to come with us. Our first stop is a Crockercrop ‘research’ facility at the beach. We’ll give you a chance to think over this, before we go talk to Equius and then find Kanaya.”  
“I’ve already informed Equius of the situation, he’s preparing to go,” Hal informs you.  
“Then we need only to inform Kanaya and Jade. Excellent.”  
Those two are now getting ready to get the fuck out of here. Things are going according to plan, as far as you can tell.  
“Can Equius bring his moirail?”  
“Yes, he can.”  
\---  
You relax in a chair and turn on the news. You and Dave returned to your hive while Rose was tasked with retrieving Kanaya and Jade.  
“Crockercorp is looking for a young man by the name of Tavros Nitram. If you see him please call this number.” Shit. You’ve seen that guy before. He was another part of your session. You have to find him before The Condesce does. If you could just remember his trollhandle. Huh, actually, you do remember.

carcinoGeneticist [CG] started trolling adiosToreador [AT] 

CG: TAVROS NITRAM, CORRECT? 

AT: i, uHH, dONT KNOW YOU, hOW DID YOU GET THIS HANDLE? 

CG: TAVROS, DO YOU REMEMBER A GAME? IT WAS A LOAD OF HORSESHIT. 

AT: dO YOU MEAN FLARPING? 

CG: NO. DID YOU DO THAT IN THIS UNIVERSE? 

AT: yES, iM NOT SURE WHAT YOU MEAN BY UNIVERSE THOUGH 

CG: IN ANOTHER UNIVERSE, WE PLAYED A GAME CALLED SGRUB. DO YOU REMEMBER THAT? 

AT: i, uH, dO 

CG: OH THANK FUCK. YOU PROBABLY ALREADY KNOW IT ISN’T FUCKING SAFE FOR THOSE OF US WHO PLAYED. WE’RE GATHERING EVERYONE WHO PLAYED THE GAME. 

AT: wAIT, eVERYONE? 

AT: eVEN VRISKA? 

CG: WHO THE FUCK IS VRISKA? 

CG: THE NAME SOUNDS FAMILIAR. 

AT: vRISKA PLAYED THE GAME, yOU’RE KARKAT, rIGHT? 

CG: YES, I AM. 

AT: i THINK I CAN TRUST YOU, wHERE ARE THE PEOPLE THAT GATHERED? \--carcinoGeneticist [CG] sent a location-- 

AT: oK, iLL GO THERE AS SOON AS I CAN, 

AT: sHOULD I, uH, bRING MY MATESPRIT? i THINK HE PLAYED THE GAME, 

CG: OF COURSE YOU CAN. 

CG: BEFORE YOU GO, DO YOU HAVE THE HANDLE OF THIS “VRISKA” GIRL? IF SHE MAY HAVE PLAYED THE GAME, I’D LIKE TO TALK TO HER. 

AT: oH, uH, sHE’S ARACHNIDS GRIP, 

adiosToreador [AT] ceased pestering carcinoGeneticist [CG] 

“Well, I found another member of our SGrub session, possibly two or maybe even three.”  
“Nice.”

carcinoGeneticist [CG] started pestering arachnidsGrip [AG] 

CG: I’M JUST GONNA GET STRAIGHT TO THE POINT, STRAIGHTER THAN STRIDER THOUGHT HE WAS. DID YOU PLAY THE GAME? I NEED TO FIND ALL THE FUCKMUFFINS WHO PLAYED THE GAME AND GATHER THOSE ASSHOLES. IT IS A MATTER OF UPMOST IMPORTANCE. 

AG: The game? Do you mean Flarping? I did, 8efore I had to leave the planet with my soulm8, so neither of us would get culled for our injuries. Also aaaaaaaaall our 8oring h8friends were leaving too. Well, our one h8friend. He was the only one alive. 

CG: NOT THAT GAME. 

AG: ::::? 

AG: Karkat, what the fuck game are you talking a8out? 

CG: I MEAN SGRUB YOU IGNORANT SHITFACE. ALSO, I NEVER TOLD YOU MY FUCKING NAME SO YOU CLEARLY REMEMBER. 

AG: Oooooooh, that’s why I remem8er you. I had just thought you were some loser we Flarped with, 8ut wasn’t even important enough to really think a8out. 

CG: GOOD TO KNOW YOU’RE JUST AS MUCH OF A BITCH AS I REMEMBER FROM THE VAGUE MEMORIES OF YOU. 

CG: BUT I ACTUALLY HAD A REASON TO MESSAGE YOU, AND I WAS GOING TO STICK TO THE POINT. I AM GOING TO BE SO STUCK TO THIS POINT, IT’S GOING TO SHOCK YOUR ROTTED PAN. FUCK. I SOUND LIKE STRIDER. 

CG: OH YEAH, RIGHT. I’M GATHERING EVERYONE WHO PLAYED SGRUB/SBURB BECAUSE THE EMPRESS IS AFTER US. WE’RE TRYING TO FIND MISSING FAMILY MEMBERS. 

AG: Sounds lame, 8ut I guess I hardly have a choice if Fish8itch is after me. I guess TZ’ll pro8a8ly enjoy herself though. So, where the fuck do I need to go? 

\--carcinoGeneticist sent a location-- 

AG: Oh, I’m in that town. 

CG: PACK YOUR SHIT, WE WON’T BE BACK HERE FOR A WHILE. 

AG: Okay, I’ll 8e there in twenty with my soulm8, she played too. 

CG: FUCKING FANTASTIC. 

carcinoGeneticist [CG] ceased pestering arachnidsGrip [AG] 

“Well, I think I found my whole session.”  
“Congrats. That means we probably ain’t gonna stick ‘round here much longer.”  


carcinoGeneticist [CG] started pestering tentacleTherapist [TT] 

CG: HOW DID THINGS GO WITH JADE? 

TT: They went excellently. We’re on our way over to your home right now, since I assume we leave tonight. 

CG: YOU ASSUMED CORRECTLY. I’VE FOUND THE WHOLE SGRUB ALPHA SESSION AND WE’RE JUST WAITING ON EVERYONE TO COME TO MY HIVE. 

TT: That is superb. We will go to your home as soon as our things are ready. 

CG: GOOD. THINGS ARE GOING FUCKING FANTASTIC, WHICH IS DEFINITELY A FIRST. 

TT: That it is. 

TT: See you later, Karkat. 

tentacleTherapist [TT] ceased pestering carcinoGeneticist [CG] 


	24. Chapter 24

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> guess this is the kismesis chapter

You and Terezi have arrived at Karkat’s hive. You’d rather be anywhere but here, but it’s supposedly for your own safety. You wouldn’t’ve listened to Karkat if you didn’t have the memories. You and Terezi were able to remember better than Tavros, likely because she’s a Seer and you’re Lightbound. So, by that logic a Seer of Light would remember best. There was a Seer of Light, you’re pretty sure. You knock on the door and are greeted by a human girl.   
“I presume you are the ‘Spiderbitch Pirate wannabe’ Karkat mentioned. It is a pleasure to meet you.” The girl has a blond bob and a headband, with something on her shirt that looks like The Empress’ lusus, except in violet and cutesy. Her name is Rose, you think. You met her on the meteor. She was the Seer of Light.   
“That is me, however I believe I technically haaaaaaaave met you before, on the meteor. You’re the Seer of Light, you should know these things.” W8. How the fuck did you not notice earlier. Your upper right arm. The curly violet script, not like the blood color. You had hidden it, it was a sure sign of illegality, either a mutant or a human. That kind of soulmark would get you culled in a fucking pusherbeat, if it was seen. Only cullbait go to Earth, it’s technically legal but you know it’s only to not cause conflict between Earth and Alternia. She’s likely fated to be your Kismesis, if the memories you have of the meteor are any indicator. The two of you never got along, but in the way you know was going to become a Kismesis, if given the time. Shit, neither of you have said anything, and are now just kinda staring at eachother in silence. Then, she rolls up her sleeve on her upper right arm. Yep. That’s your cerulean text, no doubt about it.   
“What the fuck are you doing, just standing here?” Karkat stomps over and asks, then notices Rose’s arm. “Oh, uh, congratulations? Or maybe sorry, since you’re with fucking Serket.”   
“We’ll talk later,” you tell Rose.   
“I could hear the 8 in that,” Rose responds. “But, yes. Go discuss what all is occuring. Karkat is the perfect candidate for that.”   
\---   
You arrive at Karkat’s hive, Gamzee right behind you.   
“Yo,” a blond human in sunglasses greets you. He seems vaguely familiar, but you aren’t sure why. The vague memory makes you feel mortified and awkward.  
“Oh, uh, is this the wrong house?”   
“That depends. Are you here to visit Karkat?”   
“Yes, I am.”   
“Oh sweet. Yo! Karkles, two more trolls are here!” The hemoanonymous troll walks over and the blond human absentmindedly reaches for his hand. So, these two are likely pale or red.   
“Tavros.” He examines Gamzee behind you. “...Gamzee, right?”   
“Yep, that’s my motherfuckin name.”   
“Come in, we’re gathered in the living room to discuss what the fuck we’re all doing here. Now, we only need to wait for horsefucker.” You and Gamzee enter the home and greet the other trolls and humans. Unfortunately, Vriska is there. You park your chair beside a couch and Gamzee sits on the couch.   
Someone else arrives not long after. It’s an Indigoblooded troll with an Oliveblooded troll.   
“You’re The Disciple’s descendant. Holy fucking shit, I’ve been trying to find you.” Karkat tells the Oliveblooded troll.   
You tune out this conversation and mutter Alternian Slam Poetry you’ve been working on under your breath.   
“Yo, bro, are you rapping?”   
“Huh? Uh, yeah. I am.”   
You two proceed to have one of the most epic slam poetry battles ever had in Paradox Space but the author doesn’t know shit about rap so you just read that it happened. Oh god. That’s why this guy seems familiar. He’s that guy, the one who kept talking about his human bulge and marriage and other human things that didn’t make since at the time, though they do now that you’ve lived on earth. God, both of these interactions have been like things out of Karkat’s films, he’d be talking about how pitch this is and how they should just hate-date already. Of course, he isn’t your soulmate and thus you will most likely not end up his kismesis. Though, it feels like he is your soulmate, though you know he isn’t.   
\---  
Kanaya and Jade are okay with you and Vriska pitch-dating, and it is later now. You approach the spiderbitch.   
“So?” you say one word.   
“Do you want to be in spades with me?” she asks, straight and to the point.   
“Do you?” She grins and wordlessly answers, giving you a kiss. “Is that the best you got? I’m cleary better at hate-kissing than you Serket.” You demonstrate.   
“Hey has anyone seen-” Dave begins, turning the corner. “Shit, sorry. Didn’t mean to interrupt!” The moment Dave is gone, Vriska kisses you again.   
“Not bad Serket, though I’m still better.”

**Author's Note:**

> Oh, cliffhanger? Thank you for reading. My tumblr is my-chemicalkismesis.


End file.
